Scrolling through Instagram this morning with my frothy coffee (homemade Cinnamon Latte don’t you know!) and I came across a video about ‘Sandwich art’ on a kids crafting account I follow. Intrigued, I watched the attached video wondering what on earth sandwich art was.
Well, I learnt something new. Sandwich art seems to consist of using cutters to cut out shapes from sandwiches and fillings such as ham and cheese to make fun shapes, the ones I watched being a cat, rocket and dinosaurs. I must also mention that they used edible pens to colour an egg!
As cute and fun as the video was it did get me thinking about modern day parenting and social media and how it can somehow make parents feel well, crap. As I sat and watched I found myself thinking things;
“Who the hell has the time to do that?” “Who even does this?” “Is this actual real life now?” “Seriously, what kind of parent puts this much effort in to making a sandwich looks pretty?”
So there I am having a little rant about this video to myself when I start to read the comments;
“For all those mums who have absolutely nothing else to do in the morning” “This is a waste of Food, this is CRAP N’ BULLSHIT” “What a load of sh*t!”
I thought they were awful. It made me feel sad actually. Someone has put time and effort in to this video and people are typing such negative things. But I was thinking the same. So, am I just as bad as them? Am I worse to think it but not be honest? Is it the same as bitching behind someone’s back?
So I nip to the loo in the middle of writing my blog, as you do, and I remembered that old saying that mum’s say
“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all”
Now I believe this saying, I really do. Why bring someone down with completely nonconstructive negativity when you don’t need to? Do we not have enough negativity in this world without turning on each other…for something as mundane (can egg decorating be called mundane?! Please let me know…) as making lunches pretty?
But in this world of honesty is always the best policy, where’s the line? Some people pride themselves on ‘telling it as it is’. They see this as a badge of honour to be proud of. But when does that honesty become just plain mean?
Now, slightly off the original point but bare with me… A situation I have always struggled with, for example;
You meet someone with bad breath, really bad. Now, with honesty being the best policy, you would tell them this. But if you don’t have anything nice to say, would you tell them at all?
Telling them could mean that they can chew some gum, have a mint or take other measures to sort the bad breath situation out. But what if they don’t have the means to do this right away? What if they have some medical reason for the bad breath? You then risk upsetting them or creating a really uncomfortable situation.
So you don’t tell them, they have no clue how bad their breath is and they continue the day having no idea and spreading the smell until they find out in the evening that they’ve been nostrilly abusing everyone all day. therefore making them very embarrassed.
I genuinely never know what to do in this situation. I think maybe it depends on the level of friendship with the person
Anyway, I massively digress… so much actually that I don’t know how to get back to my original point…oops!
Let’s just say that as much as sometimes honesty is needed, do we really need to go all keyboard warrior on someone making pretty sandwiches? If it’s something that makes them feel good, is there really any harm? Does it honestly make your day any brighter by writing a mean comment on a blog, video, post? Or, could you keep those thoughts in your head, hey, perhaps even share them (privately) with a friend if you really need to and scroll about your day leaving the (virtual) world that little less negative?
Side note extra thought…do you write comments on things you like? Do you spread the positive far and wide as you do you negative? I don’t. I don’t write the negative, but I don’t often write positive comments either.
So I end this blog with a new task for me, and you.
If it annoys you but doesn’t harm anyone, scroll past.
But, if it makes you smile, makes your day a little brighter, let them know. One little comment or like can really make someones day in this modern, virtual world.
TPFN - Toodle Pip For Now
Kyra x
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